FAN Bulletin 879

October 2, 2007

Dear All,

One of the most telling facts for me when I started looking at the fluoridation debate 11 years ago was the very low level of fluoride in mothers milk – 0.004 ppm in non-fluoridated areas (NRC, 2006, table 2-6, page 40, discussion pages 33-36). How on earth could fluoride be important for the development of teeth, or any other tissue for that matter, if it was present at such a low level in baby’s first meal? Who was right on what baby needed for its growing teeth “mother nature” or the “nanny governments” who would force us all to drink fluoridated water at 250 times this level from the age of zero (minus nine months) to 100 years?

Now some brilliant white-coated experts from the University of Rochester have finally proved the obvious: “Breastfeeding is not Bad for Baby’s teeth.” This staggering piece of evidence (!) is reported in Medical News Today (see full article at http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/84206.php )

According to this new study, “there is no association between breastfeeding and tooth decay in infants. However, it was found that being poor, Mexican-American, or having a mother who smoked during her pregnancy, were independent factors that raised the risk of early childhood tooth decay.”

More specifically, the scientists concluded that “there is no evidence that breastfeeding or its duration are independent risk factors for early childhood tooth decay, severe early childhood caries (tooth decay), or decayed and filled surfaces on primary teeth.”

For the older child the authors found that:

the following factors raised the risk of dental caries:

— Being poor
— Being Mexican-American
— Not having been to the dentists during the last 12 months
— Maternal smoking during pregnancy

Here is the citation for the full study:

“Association Between Infant Breastfeeding and Early Childhood Caries in the United States”
Hiroko Iida, DDS, MPH, Peggy Auinger, MS, Ronald J. Billings, DDS, MSD and Michael Weitzman, MD
PEDIATRICS Vol. 120 No. 4 October 2007, pp. e944-e952 (doi:10.1542/peds.2006-0124)

So this is one more piece of evidence that it is not lack of ingested fluoride that causes tooth decay.

Coming fast on the heels of the study from Iowa (Broffitt B, Levy SM, Warren JJ, Cavanaugh JE, An investigation of bottled water use and caries in the mixed dentition, J Public Health Dent. 2007 Summer;67(3):151-8) that could find no evidence that drinking bottled water increased the risk of dental caries, the “scientific” evidence, as opposed to countless anecdotal stories and poorly designed studies and trials, that ingesting fluoride can help fight tooth decay, is clearly dwindling to zero.

So why are over 170 million Americans being forced to drink fluoridated water every day? Why do most major environmental groups (with some noble exceptions like EWG) continue to ignore this issue and standby while generation after generation is exposed for a whole lifetime to a very toxic substance with no good scientific evidence of benefit and plenty of evidence of potential harm as clearly outlined in the NRC, 2006 review? Why – Oh Why – did these folks ever get into the business of protecting the environment or public health – if they cannot raise a finger to stop this unnecessary practice? What snake has them mesmerized?

When – Oh when – will an investigative journalist dig into this story and expose this program – and the lavish taxpayer funded support it gets via the Oral Health Division of the CDC - for the travesty that it really is? Chris Bryson did a brilliant job exposing the bogus reasons for why this sorry practice began, but we need another Bryson to expose why it continues today.

We at FAN and the network we serve are doing everything we can but without a little help from those who have the power to change this situation – but refuse to exercise that power - our voices are being drowned out by big government, big money and the consequent and blissful public ignorance these forces generate.

But the truth will eventually be recognized – like the wisdom of nature in these matters – and when it does people will wonder how on earth so many people, who should have known better, did so little to stop this embarrassing stupidity.

Paul Connett